Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. Picture: Jacques Nelles
There has been another blow for Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane this time at the Gauteng High Court.
The court set aside her report which found that former South African Revenue Service (Sars) deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay’s early retirement payout was ‘irrational’.
The 89-page report found that the allegation that the then Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan irregularly approved the early retirement of Pillay with full retirement benefits and his subsequent retention at SARS is substantiated.
In the report’s, in her findings, Mkhwebane noted six errors of law made by Gordhan that led to her conclusion that Gordhan was guilty of improper conduct.
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The court set aside the report, but the cost order has been dismissed.
Last week, the Mkhwebane was fighting another legal battle in the perjury case. She was summoned to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court to face three charges of perjury in January in a case opened by advocate Paul Hoffman from Accountability Now in 2019.
The case was triggered by the Constitutional Court decision which confirmed an earlier adverse ruling of the High Court in Pretoria regarding Mkhwebane’s handling of her investigation of the apartheid-era loan by the SA Reserve Bank to Bankorp.
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